The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-04-28

for the first offense, five shillings for the
second, ten shillings for the third, and IL
still persist g, shall be dealt with as the
committee think proper. There are secret
societies in our colleges that have letters OF
the Greek alphabet forthelr nomenclature,
and their members are at the very front in
scholarship and irreproachable in morals,
while there are others the scene of carousal,
and they gamble, and they drink, and they
graduate knowing hundred times more
about sin than they do of geometry and
Sephocles In other words, eecret socie-
ties, like individuals, are good or bad, are
the means of moral health or of temporal
and eternal damnation. All good people
recognize the vice of slandering an indi-
vidual, but many do not see the Sin of
slandering an organization.
There are old secret societies in this and
other countries, some of them centuries
old, which have been widely denounced as
immoral and damaging in their influence,
yet have hundreds OF personal friends
who belong to them, friends who are con-
secrated to God, pillars in the church,
faithful in all relations of life, examples
of virtue and piety. They are the kind of
friends whom l would have for my ex-
ecutors if l am 30 happy as to leave any
thing for my household at the time of de-
cease, and they are the men whom would
have to carry me out to the last sleep when
am dead. You cannot make me believe
that they would belong to bad institutions.
They are the men who would stamp on
anything iniquitous, and | would certainly
rather take their testimony in regard Il Q
such societies than the testimony Of those
who, having been sworn in as members,
by their assault upon the society confess
themselves perjurers. One of these secret
societies gave for the relief of the sick in
1873, in this county, 81 ,490,274 Some
of these societies have poured very
heaven of sunshine and benediction into
the home of suffering. Several Of them
are founded on fidelity to good citizenship
and the Bible. l have never taken one of
their degrees. They might give me the
grip 600 times and | would not recognize
it. am ignorant Of their passwords, and
1 must Judge entirely from the outside.
But Christ has given us rule by which
we may judge not only all individuals, but
all societies, secret and open. "By their
fruits We shall know them" Bad societies
make bad men. Good societies make good
men. A bad man will not stay in good
society. good man will not stay in a
by two or three rules.
Test the first: Their influence on home,
if you have home. That wife soon loses
her influence over her husband who
nervously and foolishly looks upon all
evening absence as an assault on domesti-
city. How are the great enterprises of re-
form, and art, and literature, and beneti-
cence, and public veal to be carried on il
every man is to have his world bounded on
one side by his front doorstep, and on
the other side by his back window, know
ing nothing higher than his own attic OF
lower than his own cellarp That wife wha
becomes jealous OF her husbands attention
to art or literature or religion or charity ia
breaking her own scepter of conjugal
power. l know an instance where wife
thought that her husband was giving too
many nights to Christian service, to
charitable service, to prayer meetings, and
to religious convocatien. She systematically
decoyed him away until now he attends no
church, waits upon no charitable institu-
ton, and is on rapid way to destruction,
his morals gone, his money gone, and
fear his soul gone. Let any Christian
wife rejoice when her husband consecrates
evenings to the service of humanity, and of
God, or charity, or art, or anything elevating.
But let no man sacrifice home life to
secret society life, as many do. l can
point out to you great many names Of
men who are guilty of this sacrilege, They
are as genial as angels Mt the society room,
and as ugly as sin at home. They are
generous on all subjects of wine suppers,
yachts and fast horses, but they are stingy
about the wives dresses and the children s
shoes. That man has made that which
might be healthful influence usurper of
his affections, and he has married it, and
he is guilty of moral bigamy. Under this
process the wife, whatever her features,
becomes uninteresting and homely. He
becomes critical of her, does not like the
dress, does not like the way she arranges
her hair, is amazed that he ever was so un-
romantic as to offer her hand and heart.
There are secret societies where member
ship always involves domestic shipwreck.
Tell me that man has joined a certain
kind, and tell me nothing more about him
for ten years, and will write his history if
Z he be still alive. The man is a wine
guzzler, his wife broken hearted or pre-
maturely old, his fortune gone or reduced,
and his home o mere name in the direc-
tory. Here are six secular nights in the
week. "What shall do with them?" says
four Of these nights to the improvement
home or in good neighborhood. Twill de-
vote one to charitable institutions. l will
devote one TO my lodge"
congratulate you. Here is man who
says: "Out of the six secular nights of the
week will devote five to lodges and clubs
and associations and one to the home,
which night will spend in scowling like
March squall, wishing was out spend
ing it as have spent the other fve." That
mans obituary is written. Not one out of
10000 that ever gets so far on the wrong
road ever stops. Gradually his health will
fail through late hours, and through too
much stimulants he will be first rate prey
for erysipelas and rheumatism of the
heart. The doctor coming in will at a
glance see it is not only present disease he
must fight but years of fast living. The
clergyman, for the sake of the feelings OF
the family, on the funeral day will only
talk in religious generalities. The men
who got his yacht in the eternal rapids will
not be at the obsequies. They have press
ing engagements that day. They will send
flowers to the coffin, will send their wives
to utter words Of sympathy, but they will
have engagements elsewhere. They never
come. Bring me mallet and chisel, and
will cut on the tombstone that mans
epitaph: Blessed are the dead who die in
the Lord" "No," you say, "that would
not be appropriate" "Let me die the
death of the righteous and let my last end
be like Hi no." YOU say, "that would
not be appropriate" Then give me the
mallet and chisel, and will cut an honest
epitaph: Here lies the victim of dissipat-
ing associations"
Another test by which you can find
whether your secret society is right or
wrong is the effect it has on your secular
occupation. can understand how, through
an institution, a man can reach commercial
success. know some men have formed
their best business relations through such